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An inventory of buildings in the city of Tunis and an assessment of their vulnerability

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Abstract

Tunis is a densely populated city. Its building stock was constructed without any seismic design code and mostly over soft soils. These facts make a seismic risk assessment of the city necessary. To prepare a large-scale vulnerability assessment of the buildings of Tunis, the following methodology was employed: (1) a collection of data based on a rapid visual screening procedure was gathered using an inventory form. These data were composed of files and information placed at the disposal of the authors by the municipality of Tunis. The data also contained information gathered by surveys carried out by engineering departments and information gathered from building owners. (2) A classification of building typologies was carried out considering construction material, structural system, age, height, function and state of maintenance. A measure of seismic vulnerability was assigned to each typology considering the first two parameters. (3) A large-scale vulnerability assessment using two methods was conducted for buildings for which few data were available. Vulnerability methods inspired by the EMS98 concepts and the Italian GNDT concepts were modified and applied to pilot-scale buildings located in the downtown zone (Habib Bourguiba Avenue) and in the old zone (Medina). The data analysis, through the application of the two methods, suggests that the vulnerability of buildings surveyed in Tunis is significant and risk mitigation efforts are necessary.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. Helen Cowley for critical reading of the manuscript, Mrs Sameh Anibi and Dr. Essaieb Hamdi for their valuable remarks and anonymous referees who, through their evaluation, have improved the quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, National Engineering School of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia

    Afef Khalfet Mansour & Najla Bouden Romdhane

  2. Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia

    Noureddine Boukadi

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  1. Afef Khalfet Mansour
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  2. Najla Bouden Romdhane
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  3. Noureddine Boukadi
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Correspondence to Afef Khalfet Mansour.

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Mansour, A.K., Romdhane, N.B. & Boukadi, N. An inventory of buildings in the city of Tunis and an assessment of their vulnerability. Bull Earthquake Eng 11, 1563–1583 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-013-9450-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-013-9450-7

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